This invention relates to endless power transmission belts, and more particularly to a temporary replacement drive belt for automotive vehicles which can be readily installed by the vehicle operator.
Automotive drive belts may sometimes fail or break at an inopportune time. It is not unusual to find three drive belts on a particular automobile. Some automobile owners or drivers equip their vehicles with one or more spare belts; however, these persons are in the minority. Even if spare belts were carried in the vehicle, replacement of a broken belt may require special tools or skills. It is desirable that some means by provided whereby a broken belt can be easily replaced so that the vehicle can be driven to a repair station.
In the prior art, numerous emergency belt solutions have been proposed, and these may be grouped as follows: In the first group are standard V-belts having special end connectors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,898 discloses means for joining the ends of a V-belt which include a pair of hinge like leaves, each leaf being secured to an end of the belt, a turnbuckle like clamp engaged with the hinge leaves to pull the opposing ends of the belt toward each other when entrained around pulleys, and a hingepin. The turnbuckle like element is removed after the hingepin is inserted through the interdigitated portion of the hinge leaves. U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,976 discloses a coupling comprising a pair of band connections having extensions with shaped slots or openings, which connections are secured around the side walls at opposite ends of the belt; and a metal sleeve with correspondingly shaped embossments or depressions which slidingly engages each end to interlock with the slots and form a continuous belt.
In the second group of emergency belts are those having particular configurations. This group may be further divided into belts having hollow-cores and special connectors, and belts having specialized connecting means.
Belts having hollow cores, either full length or extending some distance into the belt ends are disclosed in the following U.S. Pats Nos.; 2,995,045, 3,461,733, 3,501,971, 3,605,201 and 4,031,766.
Belts having specialized connecting means are disclosed as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,586 discloses a belt having a toothed and pronged male member at one end and a hollow toothed female member embedded in the opposite end. More than one length of belt can be inserted into each other to form any desired length.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,156 discloses a stretchable belt having a tubular wire mesh at one end secured therearound and extending therefrom, and a male member secured to the other end which has a series of radially projecting barbs, so that when the male member is fitted in the wire mesh on the other end, the barbs hold the ends together. In installing the device, the belt is entrained around the pulleys and then stretched to make the end connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,168 discloses a drive belt having grooves in each of the drive surfaces. Holes are provided in each end of the belt, extending between the bottom surfaces of the grooves. A coupling means secures the ends of the belt together.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,879 discloses a belt having a pocket of bonding medium at one end thereof and a pin at its other end. An attaching mechanism is necessary for pulling the two ends together and holding them until securely bonded.
The above-described belts may be regrouped into one group which allows assembly of the belt while entrained around the pulleys, and a second group which requires that the belt be assembled off the vehicle and then entrained around the pulleys. the first group are generally extensible, to allow for assembly, and may be so extensible as to be unsatisfactory for use on an automotive vehicle. The second group may be difficult to entrain around the pulleys without special tools.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved emergency drive belt and a fabrication method therefor.
Other objects, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become evident from the description and the accompanying drawing.